September recap – Keeping up that winning form

Coming out of a successful month and some great results in August, the season is getting closer and closer to the end, but still with big wins on the line and the Team dsm-firmenich colours back on the podiums across Europe.

Our women’s program returned to racing with the Simac Ladies Tour, a race the team has good memories of after taking three stage wins and the overall win last year. The team continued to show great racing. In the two kilometre long opening prologue, it was Charlotte Kool, who finished off the the great technical setup from everyone, by taking a nice victory for the team. Wearing the leaders jersey the day after, Charlotte sprinted into a good third place, confirming her good shape from the opening day. The race offered another battle against the clock on stage two with a short seven kilometre long time trial. Pfeiffer Georgi showed a fine ride again, finishing in tenth on the day, and moving up to eighth in the overall classification. On stage three it was another opportunity for the sprinters and Charlotte once again proved she’s one of the fastest riders in the peloton, sprinting to her second win of the week after a great lead-out.

“We thought today it wasn’t up to us to do the chasing and that worked out well,” explained Kool. “Normally we do the job but we didn’t have yellow, so it was time for others to do the chasing. Everyone in the team was then fresh for the finale and you can see what an amazing lead-out we can do. I made sure I wasn’t blocked in today. We know that if I can do my sprint then I’m really fast and today I could do just that and it turned out really well for us. This stage was a big goal for us so I’m really happy to take the win with the team.”

In the last two stages, Pfeiffer was in the mix of the battle for the GC win. She finished in a fine eighth place on stage four and fifth on the final day, which saw her move up to end the race in a strong fourth place in the final classification.

Meanwhile, the Men’s program made a trip across the Channel, where the Tour of Britain was on the menu. The team used numerous sprint opportunities to work on their lead-out with Casper van Uden as finisher. Working better and better and clicking with each other throughout the week, they gained some important confidence that saw Casper finish in a notable second place on stage four.

Alongside the action in the UK, the adventure in Spain continued at the Vuelta a España. After the perfect start to the race, the team suffered from some bad luck the days after, with crashes seeing Oscar Onley and Lorenzo Milesi abandon the race. The remaining group continued to fight though and was very present at the head of the action in the following days.

Chris Hamilton came close to the second stage win of the race just before the first rest day. On stage nine he climbed to a nice third place from the breakaway. On the climb to Caravaca de la Cruz he suffered a puncture in the final, but continued to fight his way to the line and get a nice podium for the team.

At the end of week two, it was Romain Bardet present in the front of the race. He attacked early from the breakaway together with Remco Evenepoel and the duo continued to the final climb and fought out the victory there. Unfortunately, Romain had to let go of his companion deep into the final, but finished in a strong second place on the day.

Going into the final week, the colours of Team dsm-firmenich were once again very prominent in the breakaways. On the hard stage 18 Max Poole was able to jump into the group of the day and showed a brave race in the third week of his first Grand Tour. He ran out of legs a bit in the final but finished fourth on the day, a result he can be very proud of.

On the next day all the good teamwork finally paid off. Everything seemed to be in jeapordy when Sean Flynn and Max hit the ground in the final kilometres, but Alberto Dainese was able to escape the crash and was in perfect position going into the bunch sprint. He waited for the perfect moment to launch his sprint and took home a great win for the team.

After the finish a happy Alberto said: “We looked back at the sprints that we did in the first few weeks, where we went wrong and what we can then do today, and we executed the plan perfectly. It was really unlucky to lose Sean and Max in the crash, but until that point they kept me in the perfect position and where we wanted to be. We knew it was a headwind in the finish so I let Ganna and a few of the other guys open it up early and then waited for my moment. I’m super happy to finish it off today. I really wanted to end the season and my time with the team in a good way; this feels really special because of that. I put a lot of pressure on it because it is one of the last sprints I’ll do, but it was great to take the win. I want to say thanks to the whole team; they did a great job today and this is for them.”

The team rounded out the Vuelta showing the fighting spirit that they had encapsulated for the whole race, with Romain taking ninth place on the final mountain stage from the break, and a dedicated chase of a super strong breakaway on the final day; which unfortunately held on to fight for the win. Nonetheless, the team can hold their heads high, leaving Spain with two stage wins, a second place, two third places and several other strong day results – and of course that memorable day in the red leader’s jersey!

The Women’s program also took on the mountains again at the Tour de Romandie. After a fast finish on day one, the queen stage was on the cards for day two. After being brought into the final by her team perfectly, Juliette Labous went into attack mode on the final climb and thinned out the leading group. She just couldn’t follow the very best on the day, but finished in a strong fourth place, also moving up to that spot in GC. Despite the team trying to shake things up on the final stage, Juliette would end the race in fourth overall.

Next on the agenda was the European Championship week where the team had several riders, across the three programs, representing their nation. Notably, Juliette was part of the French Mixed TTT Relay squad which claimed gold while Franziska Koch and her German squad mates took third. In the road races Juliette was up there once again to take ninth in the women’s race, with an ever impressive Pfeiffer just missing out on the podium in fourth. John Degenkolb rode a smart and strong race for Germany in the men’s event on the final day where he took a solid and well-earned eighth place in the road race.

Back to repping our two-striped jersey, our Men’s program took some promising results at Omloop van het Houtland where Casper finished sixth, and have recently headed off to sunny Croatia where our young group have fought brilliantly each stage. On the opening day they set up fast finisher Tobias Lund Andresen to take second place, and equalling that result on stage three saw him move into the race lead. Stage four held host to the queen stage where a hilly day out saw the climbers and puncheurs come to the fore; with Matt Dinham riding to a good sixth on the day after some strong teamwork, moving up to fifth overall.

At the time of this newsletter being sent out, the guys are out on the road for stage five in Croatia, but we also have our Men’s and Women’s programs both in action at the Giro dell’Emilia so if you’re looking for something to do this weekend there is still plenty of racing to watch! In the coming period we also have several races in Italy, plus some in Belgium and France, before the end of season finale in China.